The room was buzzing with conversation. The noise ceased as the first speaker, Dr. Sean Evans professor of political science and Department Chair, called for silence and introduced himself. The speakers’ faces reflected how seriously they took the topic at hand: how do you approach the election in a Christian way, especially with the candidates we’re currently offered?
Dr. Evans made his points first, including that voting is prudence, that we must look at the character of a candidate and that we need to hold candidates to Biblical standards consistently.
Dr. Hunter Baker, associate professor of political science, was primarily concerned with the sanctity of life, religious liberty and flexible economics.
Finally, Dr. Greg Ryan, associate professor of political science, proposed that a Clinton presidency would mean the worst for Christians, and that with Trump there’s a chance that Christians could see positive change. He contrasted Clinton with Trump, and said Hillary represented a push toward globalization, while Trump seems to be part of a new wave of globalist skeptics that’s sweeping western politics.
Dr. Ryan finished, and it was time for the audience to ask questions. The questions and audience members were calm and respectful, as were the speaker’s answers.
“When people tend to retreat into their own worlds, their own electronic worlds, they’re not forced to deal with other people,” Dr. Ryan said on how people have treated each other during this year’s election, “Then they don’t even understand the rationale that people have, the situation that they’re coming from, and they tend to demonize them and dehumanize them.”
Members of the audience seemed to share the opinion that hostility should not be practiced among disagreeing voters this election. Joshua Swafford, a freshman political science major, said, “We even treat each other very horribly this election. I think as Christians, even when we disagree with people, we’re still called to love one another and I still don’t see that from many Christians.”
